In general it is a poor idea to rely on undocumented or software-specific formats for long term archival purposes. If you always also store the FOP, then you're likely to be fine.
On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 23:24, Alexios Giotis <[email protected]> wrote: > Any thoughts or comments on this ? Of course, I don't expect anybody to make > a commitment that it will change in backwards compatible ways. > > Alexios > > > On Feb 8, 2012, at 5:30 PM, Alexios Giotis wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I am already storing some millions per month of files containing FOP >> intermediate format (FOP_IF) using a private patched branch based on FOP >> 1.0. The current use case is performance. If a document is found in the >> store containing FOP_IF, then use it and create the final output format >> (typically PDF). If not, then start from XML. The retention period of the >> FOP_IF files is 6 months to 1 year. The XML files are kept for at least 10 >> years. In my tests, 85% of the time is spent on the layout and the rest for >> rendering. This has worked well, especially for big documents (with >> thousands of pages). I have no worries about the FOP_IF format and how it >> will evolve as I know that they will be gone after 6 months or one year max. >> And for sure, I can keep an older version for that long. >> >> I am now planing to use FOP in different ways and use cases such as: >> >> 1. Bypassing FOP's layout engine and it's quirks in XSL:FO input, cpu-time >> and memory. This means directly creating FOP_IF. With the same effort, I >> could use PDFBox (or iText 2.x) to create PDF files. But having FOP_IF, I >> also produce AFP, PS and PCL which I need and I know no other open sources >> renderers. >> >> 2. Longer storage of FOP_IF. Compared to storing XML, it's faster, less >> components are involved until the final output and it allows for easier >> versioning. For example, given the same XSL:FO input, FOP 2.0 will not >> produce the *identical* content as FOP 1.0 (I hope somebody will disagree to >> this :) Compared to storing PDF, the required space is much less as I have >> big volumes on expensive EMC storage. Secondly I retain the flexibility on >> selecting parts to render. Not all users have the permissions to see all >> parts of the documents. Also, some users see masked values (e.g. stars in >> place of a card number). >> >> >> For both cases, I really need to know your thoughts and plans for FOP_IF. >> Watching the lists the last 2 years, I have not noticed anything related to >> it. >> >> >> Greetings, >> Alexios Giotis >> > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > -- Marcin Tustin Tel: 07773 787 105 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
